I have commented in the past that in terms of art making most of my projects are born spontaneously, or at least that is how the idea is born. This time it happened while fishing at the beach with one of my friends, however now feel like I’m confronted with some kind of moral dilemma.
A few days ago was a very hot day, almost 100 degrees so my friend and I decided to go fishing. It was already sunset but the moon was almost full which allowed us to stay at the beach until late. My friend caught his first fish ever, it was a big beautiful surfperch. We were planning on catching and releasing but when my friend caught the perch we realized that the fish had swallowed the hook too deep to safely remove it so decided to keep it for eating.
Next, I caught a bat ray and fought to bring it to shore for about 20 minutes. We removed the hook and let it back in the water. It was now time for us to go home and decided to clean the fish there. When we opened the fish’s belly we realized it was pregnant, there were about 30 baby perch inside some sort of placenta. We felt terrible about, unfortunately there was nothing we could do. I decided to take them home and freeze them to create something with their tiny bodies.
This is where I have mixed feelings. Should I had just placed them in the water for other creatures to eat and try to forget that this happened? This is not the kind of collaboration I had pictured (if you can even call it that)
On the other hand, I’m also conscious that not every story and not every art piece I create evolves from a happy situation. I felt like I should just embrace it. I believe this relates to my desire with collecting dead birds and preserving their wings and feathers to use them in art projects as to somehow memorialize their dead and underline their beauty.
At this point, the fish are at my studio, I was thinking of covering them with polyurethane or other resin to preserve the bodies. Any suggestions, comments or thoughts about this?
I got a video I can upload of the fish while we were cleaning it but its very graphic.